Asian Pacifc Journal of Cancer Prevention, Vol 16, 2015 2257 DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.7314/APJCP.2015.16.6.2257 Return to Work and Its Relation to Financial Distress among Iranian Cancer Survivors Asian Pac J Cancer Prev, 16 (6), 2257-2261 Introduction Cancer is the third leading cause of deaths in the world. According to international statistics, 12.7 million new cancer cases and 7.6 million cancer- related deaths were recorded in 2008 (Jemal et al., 2011). In our country, Iran, cancer is the third common cause of death after cardiovascular diseases and road traffc accidents (Mousavi et al., 2009). Advances in current treatments and innovation of new therapies and early detection techniques have dramatically increased the number of cancer survivors in recent years (Rowland and Yancik, 2006). It is estimated that 13.7 million people with a history of cancer were alive in the United States in early 2012. The majority of those patients (64%) were diagnosed during the fve or more years ago, and 15% were diagnosed 20 or more years ago (Siegel et al., 2012). The diagnosis and treatment of cancer often causes lots of complications for patients in both physical and psychological dimensions (Wen and Gustafson., 2004; Faghani et al., 2014; Tuncay, 2014). These complications 1 Medical Surgical Department, 3 Community Health Nursing, Nursing and Midwifery Faculty, 2 Hematology and Oncology Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran, Tabriz, Iran *For correspondence: azad.rahmani@yahoo.com Abstract Background: Return to work after treatment completion is important for both cancer survivors and society. Financial distress is one of the factors that may infuence the return to work in cancer survivors. However, this relationship has not been well investigated. This study aimed to determine the rate of return to work and its relation to fnancial distress among Iranian cancer survivors. Materials and Methods: This descriptive-correlational study was undertaken among 165 cancer survivors who completed their initial treatments and had no signs of active cancer. The Return to Work questionnaire and Financial Distress/Financial Well-Being Scale were used for data collection. Data were analyzed using SPSS statistical software. Results: After initial treatments, 120 cancer survivors (72%) had returned to work, of which 50 patients (42%) had returned to full-time work and 70 (58%) reduced their work hours and returned to part-time work. Cancer survivors also reported high levels of fnancial distress. In addition, the fnancial distress was lower among patients who had returned completely to work, in comparison to patients who had quit working for cancer-related reasons (p= 0.001) or returned to work as part-time workers (p=0.001). Conclusions: The fndings showed that a high percent of Iranian cancer survivors had not returned to their jobs or considerably reduced working hours after treatment completion. Accordingly, due to high levels of fnancial distress experienced by participants and its relation to return to work, designing rehabilitation programs to facilitate cancer survivor return to work should be considered. Keywords: Return to work - fnancial distress - cancer - cancer survivors - Iran RESEARCH ARTICLE Return to Work and Its Relation to Financial Distress among Iranian Cancer Survivors Mostafa Ghasempour 1 *, Azad Rahmani 2 , Arefeh Davoodi 1 , Zahra Sheikhalipour 1 , Jamal Evazie Ziaeei 2 , Fariba Abri 3 may include increased dependence and sense of vulnerability, pain suffering, negative thoughts and lack of confdence (Jemal et al., 2011), as well as, impaired daily functioning and social isolation (Helgeson and Cohen., 1996; Afrooz et al., 2014). These problems, plus the frequent hospitalizations and use of invasive procedures had reduced the patients’ quality of life (Keogh and MacLeod, 2012). Also, cancer diagnosis/treatment can lead to fnancial diffculties for many cancer patients and their caregivers (Wen and Gustafson, 2004; Rowland and Baker., 2005) In this regard, the fndings of studies in Canada (Lauzier et al., 2008) and United States (Hamilton et al., 2013) showed that fnancial distress caused by the cancer diagnosis/treatment is even prevalent among cancer patients in developed countries. According to recent literature, 90 thousand people in the UK annually experience the cancer diagnosis at the working age and almost half of the cancer survivors are younger than 65 years (Short et al., 2005). Accordingly, it is expected that most of cancer survivors will be able to resume their daily activity including return to work